I cannot help but notice eager restorers asking other restorers what their recipe for success was while scanning through social media, industry publications and wanderings at industry events. I saw us doing the same thing in the infancy of our restoration company. We noticed contractors in our area doing TPA work; suddenly, we found ourselves exploring TPAs. After seeing that other restorers posted about agent and plumber marketing, we quickly adopted similar strategies. This happens every day and causes an effect some people refer to as “the sea of sameness.” If you start looking at restoration websites and marketing materials, visit restoration companies and look at their vans, everything starts to look pretty much the same.

Before you jump to conclusions, I’m not suggesting that industry uniformity is terrible. There are a lot of pros to “doing things the same way” as an industry, including a voice and purchasing power. However, we must realize that the primary role of any enterprise is to solve a problem and that differentiation is the key to competitive advantage. In addition to following what your competitors or other peers on the forums are doing, I challenge you to take a deeper look at what they aren’t doing. Suppose you can discover a process, tactic or service offering that is unheard of within the industry and succeed with it. In that case, you will become the only company within your market competing in that fashion.